Berri Says Presidential Elections to Remain Local Affair
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday that consultations over the election of a new head of state will remain a local affair even after the constitutional deadline ends on May 25.
“I have asked ambassadors whom I have met not to interfere in the details of this matter,” Berri said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.
However, the speaker expressed fear that direct foreign intervention would increases and would becomes a de-facto after the end of President Michel Suleiman's tenure.
The AMAL movement leader told the daily that no agreement has been reached yet over the name of the new president, pointing out that he will call for another session on Friday morning if the parliament failed to convene on Thursday due to the lack of quorum.
“If positive signs loomed at the last-minute, then I am ready to call for a session at Saturday midnight,” Berri said.
Parliament has so far failed to elect a new president over differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances.
Most of the March 8 camp's MPs have boycotted four rounds of elections over their call for an agreement on a consensual president.
A fifth round of polls is scheduled to be held Thursday before the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure.
Asked about Wednesday's session, which is set to discuss a message sent by Suleiman to legislators regarding the presidential elections, Berri revealed that it focuses on the importance of staging the polls on time.
He considered that the message doesn't contain any criticism for the parliament.
Suleiman's message last week urged the parliament to act in accordance with the Constitution to avert the dangers that could arise from the failure to elect a new head of state by May 25.
There are fears that the vacuum in the country's top Christian post would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.
As Safir newspaper reported that Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, which is loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, will only attend the session to express rejection to the message.
Loyalty to the Resistance bloc will not attend as Hizbullah considers “Suleiman to be from the past,” the newspaper added.
The president's message has only a moral value and isn't binding, however, the speaker is obliged to read it at the parliament in accordance with the authorities given to the head of state by clause 10 of article 53 of the Constitution.
The message is the third of-its-kind handed over to the parliament since the adoption of the Taif accord.
Lebanon's First Post-War President Elias Hrawi had urged the parliament in his message to approve civil marriage in the country and to establish the “National Authority for the abolition of political sectarianism,” and former President Emile Lahoud dispatched a message regarding the electoral law.
H.K.
G.K.
21 May 2014, 08:33
23
“If positive signs loomed at the last-minute, then I am ready to call for a session at Saturday midnight,” Berri said.... shut up already, it is your master Nasrallah that is orchestrating this sabotage. The M8 stooges make noise about a candidate but don't select one and don't show up to make sure a vote can not take place.
21 May 2014, 09:51
01
Lebanese people always wanted to be part of the evolutionary modern world, please be my guest; in all countries of the modern world ,people have equal rights and that is a precondition to build a nation; unfortunately since the independence of Lebanon ,people were misled by corrupt feudals leaders backed by ignorant and hypocrits religious leaders; millions of Lebanese immigrated and hundreds of thousands were killed, and we are still counting.
21 May 2014, 10:15
11
general_puppet you are a wasteful brain dead collaborator of the M14s. Have you no family to attend to? Stop your BS I have studied you but to no avail, you are an absolute waste of time on this forum. Could you please be more of a debater than a hater. Please attend to your wife, she needs your company for at least 4 hours a day. Now go & play with your children for another 4 hours, then go to sleep for at least 7 hours, then go off to work for at least 9 hours, now that leaves you with a 0 hour of surfing the net. Could please explain to us how you manage 24 hours on Narharnet? I'm not being rude but you are an exception without any rules.
21 May 2014, 12:03
02
It is time to change Lebanon's power-sharing agreement. If Berry would have it his way, the President would be a Shiite, the Premier a Shiite and the Speaker a Shiite. That would 'Loyalty to the Resistance', Berry's translation.
From the above pic, Berry is being suited to the title of President Berry..
Time to exit..
21 May 2014, 12:06
01
(1). Mr. Berri, it is now very clear that between the M8 and the M14 push and pull game, that M8 is the one that clearly is working in favor of a vacuum. As it now looks set, the vacuum is about to happen within the next coming few days, and as you seem intent to make us believe, for all I know, the Made In Lebanon candidate may well not happen, thus, you will have your hands full with foreign meddling once again. You, the leaders of Lebanon would have once again shown that even such trivial matters such as electing a new president are things that you couldn't tackle, or should I say, don't want to tackle and why?
21 May 2014, 12:07
01
(2). Berri. Because you at M8 HQ want to forcefully bring about another rubber stamper, and M14 wants to make sure that this won't happen. So now what happens to Lebanon will remain as usual, your least of all worries till you guys wake up one day to find that you no longer lead over Lebanese nationals, but Syrians and Palestinians. Then they'll go to your homes all of you mafiosis, and throw you off your balconies, unless that is if you have a few gas canisters handily kept for such situations, you know, Bourj Hammoud style.
